The Amory Wars is an ongoing series of science fiction comic books and novels created by American musician-author Claudio Sanchez (of the musical group Coheed and Cambria) in collaboration with Chondra Echert and others, and published by Evil Ink Comics. The name also refers to the fictional conflict at the center of the story, which is told across the published works, and is also the primary focus of most of the band's music.
The multimedia franchise originates with Coheed and Cambria's studio albums (with the exception of 2015's The Color Before the Sun) each of which tells a chapter in the saga originally narrated by Sanchez's lyrics. The band also makes use of recurring melodies, self-referencing musical and lyrical cues in certain songs that reference key moments in The Amory Wars mythology. Some individual songs on these albums (e.g., "The Crowing", "Everything Evil", "Three Evils") use a particular song structure named by Brad Osborn as the "terminally climactic form" in order to depict a particularly violent action from the story.
The mythos is not wholly comprehensible through the music and lyrics alone. Sanchez created The Amory Wars comics and novels to better depict the story's events and characters.
Plot summary
The Amory Wars is set in Heaven's Fence, a collection of 78 planets and seven stars, held in place by interconnecting beams of energy known as the “Keywork”.
Year of the Black Rainbow and The Second Stage Turbine Blade narrate the struggle of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon against Wilhelm Ryan, the Supreme Tri-Mage who launches a war campaign with the intended goal to rule over Heaven's Fence.
The story arcs In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, and Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow focus on the heroic journey of Claudio Kilgannon, son of Coheed and Cambria, and his journey to assume the mantle of The Crowing, foretold savior of Heaven's Fence.
Set long before the events of the previous chapters, The Afterman: Ascension and The Afterman: Descension tell the story of Dr. Sirius Amory, a scientist who enters the Keywork in an attempt to understand its mysterious energy.
Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures is the first of five story arcs that continue the original Amory Wars saga and follows the story of Creature and Sister Spider, who are incarcerated within the prison planet known as the Dark Sentencer.
Timeline The story arcs within The Amory Wars universe follow a fictional timeline, and are connected by continuity of events, characters, and locations. Coheed and Cambria's first four studio album releases told the main story in non-chronological order. The Second Stage Turbine Blade In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow
2010's Year of the Black Rainbow acts as a prequel that sets up the events that take place in the previous four albums, following many of the same characters.
Together, The Afterman: Ascension (2012) and The Afterman: Descension (2013) told a new story set even earlier in the timeline than the first five releases. These albums focused on new characters while elaborating on previously introduced concepts.
The 2018 album Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures is the first story arc to take place after the original tetralogy. Much like The Afterman albums, it focuses on an entirely new cast and setting within the Amory Wars universe. This chapter is set to be the first of five in the Vaxis story arc, and its connections to the previous events in the timeline will become more apparent in the coming iterations. It was followed by Vaxis – Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind in 2022 and Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe in 2025.
Production In 2004, the first graphic series related to the Amory Wars was published with Evil Ink's release of The Bag on Line Adventures: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, written by Claudio Sanchez and illustrated by Wes Abbott. However, after two issues were published, the project was discontinued due to creative roadblocks including Sanchez's touring schedule with Coheed and Cambria. These original issues were later included in The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade Ultimate Edition.
Evil Ink then released the Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV: Volume One – From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness graphic novel in 2005 to accompany the release of Coheed and Cambria's third studio album of the same name. This publication was again written by Sanchez, and illustrated by Christopher Shy. Unlike the previous release for Second Stage Turbine Blade, this graphic novel told the entire story of the Good Apollo Vol. 1 album, though many details were still unclear.
During a 2006 interview, Claudio cited financial constraints for the irregular and unfinished release of the story's publications, and explained that Evil Ink intended to publish new comics under the title The Amory Wars that would retell the concept chronologically.
Throughout 2007, Evil Ink released the first volume of The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, which consisted of five issues written by Claudio Sanchez and illustrated by Gus Vasquez (Chapters 1 and 2) and Mike S. Miller (Chapters 3 - 5). The second volume was released over the course of 2008, consisting of five more chapters written by Sanchez with artist Gabriel Guzman providing illustration. On August 15, 2017, BOOM! Studios released The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade Ultimate Edition, which included all 10 issues, as well as the both issues original out-of-print Bag On Line Adventures: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, and a new bonus story – 33 written by Sanchez and illustrated by Dave Hamann.
On April 13, 2010, Coheed and Cambria released their fifth studio album Year of the Black Rainbow. The deluxe version of the album included a novel co-written by Sanchez and Peter David, which narrates the album's story, which takes place prior to the events of The Second Stage Turbine Blade and acts as a prequel to The Amory Wars saga.
In 2010, Claudio again enlisted David to co-write the comic adaptation of the band's second studio album. Evil Ink released the first issue of The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 on May 26, 2010. The story was told across a series of 12 comics released throughout 2010 and 2011, with Chris Burnham illustrating chapters 1 – 7, and Aaron Kuder illustrating the remaining 8 – 12. All twelve chapters were later compiled and released as The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 Ultimate Edition by BOOM! Studios on April 10, 2018.
Coheed and Cambria's sixth and seventh albums, respectively titled The Afterman: Ascension (released 2012) and The Afterman: Descension (released 2013), each had their story told in a similar manner to Year of the Black Rainbow. The albums’ Deluxe Editions each included a limited-edition coffee table book that featured the story of each song written by Sanchez and illustrations Nathan Spoor.
The band announced on January 24, 2017, that Evil Ink would be releasing The Amory Wars: Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness to coincide with their anniversary tour for their third studio album (dubbed Neverender: GAIBSIV). Co-written by Sanchez and his wife Chondra Echert, this new adaptation told the full version of the album's story than depicted in the 2004 graphic novel. The story was illustrated by Rags Morales, and released across twelve issues that ran from April 5, 2017, through October 10, 2018. As with the first two installments of The Amory Wars comics, BOOM! Studios released a hardcover Ultimate Edition on October 8, 2019, which includes all twelve issues as well as the original graphic novel.
After taking a break from their mythology on their 2015 album, The Color Before the Sun, Coheed and Cambria released their ninth album, Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures, on October 5, 2018. The album began a new story set after the events of the previous album's mythology, and the deluxe box-set version of the album included a novella written by Sanchez and Echert with illustrations by artist Chase Stone.
After being announced at the No World For Tomorrow Neverender tour, during which the band performed the entirety of Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, the fourth and final comic in the series began distribution in May 2024. The series was also released on Backerkit, with special alternate covers available for preorders. The final four issues in No World For Tomorrow were collected into a single volume set released on December 25 of the same year.
The Bag.On.Line Adventures The original name of the story was The Bag.On.Line Adventures of Coheed and Cambria. This would also be the name of the first chapter of their story and the respective album (chronologically, from the story's standpoint, Bag.On.Line Adventures would come before Second Stage Turbine Blade).
The Bag.On.Line Adventures would essentially work as a prequel and would follow the story of Coheed, Cambria, and Jesse as part of an anti-terrorist agency called the K.B.I., which stood for the Knowledge (referring to Cambria and her ability to see the future and other events), the Beast (referring to Coheed and his ability to fight his way out of basically any tight situation), and the Inferno (referring to Jesse, the burning heart and soul of the KBI).
The name "Bag.On.Line" came from a shop across from Claudio Sanchez's apartment during the trip to Paris in which he first conceptualized the Coheed and Cambria saga.
Since then, Coheed & Cambria have released the prequel to Second Stage Turbine Blade, titled Year of the Black Rainbow.
The Amory Wars Sketchbook After Sanchez changed the name to The Amory Wars, he also released a sketchbook, illustrated by Gus Vasquez, which plots out the next comic. Originally dubbed "Comic Zero", "The Amory Wars Sketchbook" was released at ComicCon. Later, the Evil Ink website began selling the sketchbook in limited release. This comic explains the very beginning of the Keywork and Heaven's Fence. Years pass and the comic ends introducing Coheed Kilgannon on his home planet of Hetricus.
The Second Stage Turbine Blade
First released in the summer of 2004, the original two comic books narrate the events of approximately the first third of Coheed and Cambria's concept album The Second Stage Turbine Blade of 2002. They introduce central characters, including the villains Wilhelm Ryan and Mayo Deftinwolf who orchestrate a sinister plot to murder the children of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon in order to use the dormant Monstar virus hidden within Coheed to destroy the Keywork. Claudio Kilgannon escapes murder at the hands of his parents, who have been tricked into believing that their children may cause the destruction of humanity if left alive, and becomes the protagonist of later chapters. These early issues, which were inked by Wes Abbott, are now out of print.